Leading America's horses to safety since 2003.

11-18-10

We have some exciting news! The first report for the credit cards is in, and with only 4 people signing up, we got $226.30! We are a little disappointed that only 4 people signed up, but this shows how easy it is to help in a significant way for free. If everyone who read out blog got a card and used it just a little bit, that would be over $150,000 overnight. That could put up a really nice adoption center! Remember, just for signing up and swiping it once, we get $50. That’s pretty significant! One of our supporters wrote a comment for a blog post: “I have the horse headshot Capital One card and just used it last week. I am excited to see how much this brings into the rescue. I am going to charge my gas instead of using debit then quickly pay the card. Hopefully this way the rescue gets a larger donation!” You can help just like her, click here and sign up.

Wednesday afternoon we got a call about 10 horses that had been abandoned for quite awhile in Tehema county. They were running the hills and causing mischief all over the countryside. Finally a concerned individual corralled them up when they were on her ranch. She then called Animal Control and the Sheriff department, both of which didn’t want to do anything about the abandoned horses. Finally after numerous calls Animal Control said if she hauled them to their shelter they would do something with them. Generally this means selling them / “adopting” them to whoever will take them with no strings attached, often the horses end up in the slaughter pipeline.

She then proceeded to contact every horse rescue group she could find, but they all said they were full. “Sorry, we can’t help you.” What was she supposed to do with the horses? Turn them back out to fend for themselves and possible get hit on the road? Finally Haven Humane Society gave her our phone number. No doubt she was expecting to hear “Sorry, we are full, we can’t help you” when she dialed our number. Unlike many other horse groups, we are an open door facility, meaning we will not turn away any horse that needs us. This open door policy comes with a lot of responsibilities, hard decisions and is scary at times.

Thursday morning early Jason hooked up the big trailer and hit the road after picking up Larry. It was a beautiful morning as the sun began to peek through the clouds.

The price of diesel is always depressing, but saving lives costs money.

Along the way there was the mandatory construction to slow traffic down.

Jason and Larry arrived to meet the group of 10. Jason was actually surprised to see how healthy they are. Typically abandoned horses are emaciated and have terrible hooves. These guys were raiding the neighborhood and it showed.

One of the lady’s first comments was “Wow, you’re even wearing uniforms.” She has had bad experiences with rescues in the past and no doubt was expecting the worst. She said she was hoping cowboys with whips and hotshots didn’t show up to load the horses. We never use hotshots, and our contact is always as gentle as possible.

First the horses were herded into a small corral area.

Then the trailer was backed up and they all watched with anticipation.

One of them was so excited, she just couldn’t wait to smell the trailer.

They all got in the trailer safely (no whips or hotshots needed!) and they hit the road towards the shelter.

At the shelter, Amee, April and Colby had been working hard to get their pen ready. The trailer backed up to the pen…

…Larry opened the door…

..and they began coming out.

Horse after horse came piling out of the trailer and into their nice clean pen with yummy food and clean water.

They just kept coming and coming.

“Are they all out yet?”

The 10 horses were so happy to be out of the trailer and stretching their legs on solid ground once again. For a majority of them it was probably their first trailer ride. They all did very well.

Forest had a potential adopter come out to meet him. They came out on Sunday, but Forest was having too much fun hanging out with the girls (he is a gelding) to visit adopters, so they rescheduled. Remember, if you are wanting to adopt a horse, and have free time during the week, give us a call to see if an appointment is available.

Forest has been with us quite awhile just waiting for that perfect person to call his own.

She really fell in love with Forest and the two were quite happy with each other.

This looks like an adoption picture, but she still needs to have her adoption application approved. This is an adoption hold picture! She put her $50 hold down on him and is excitedly waiting to hear the status of her application.

After Forest was turned out in the 15 acre pasture to play with his friends, his adopter and her friend just had to go visit the 10 abandoned horses.

We know you want to meet each one of the horses, so here we go.

This is a mare who is blind in 1 eye.

Chestnut mare.

Yearling colt.

Paint mare.

Thin bay mare.

Chestnut mare.

Chestnut mare.

Paint mare.

Young colt.

Chestnut mare.

Please visit our Facebook page, http://facebook.com/horsehumane, and help us name the horses! All of the horses are friendly and curious about people. They also have a lot of stickers and burrs in their manes and tails from frolicking in the hills.

Along with that they are all covered in ticks from hoof to ear. They need their Ivermectin soon so the ticks will die and fall out.

Some have minor uncared for injuries, but overall this is a very healthy herd of horses.

They are all so cute and it is nice to know they are safe and sound.

The easy part is over. The horses are safe at the shelter, but now it’s your turn to help. We desperately need donations to geld the colts ($500 total) and their initial intake care and food! If everyone pitched in $10 ($10 for 10 horses!) it would help out a lot! We stepped out in faith with this large intake, knowing that you will provide the funds to care for these horses. Being an open door facility takes a lot of courage, but we know we can count on you. Click here or visit our homepage and look under the Urgent Need to help. Please mark your donation as “Urgent Need.”

Finally the sun was setting in the western sky, and what a pretty sunset it was.

The shelter challenge is still going on! We are still in 3rd place for California. To vote, click here.

We would like to thank all of our supporters who donated. Many thanks to Amy C., Sandra L., Jean S., Caroline R., Marie J., Trudi R. and the California Trail Blazers for their benefit ride which raised $325! We can’t thank you all enough for your support.